If you want to apply for a place in Nursery (pupils can start the term after they turn three) then please contact the school office on 01759 302699 or email office@pocklington-infants.org.uk. Pupils who attend our Nursery must apply through the local authority admissions team for a place in Reception.
If you want to apply for a Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 place at our school you will have to apply through the local authority East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s School Admissions Team. For the next step of your child’s journey, you will have to apply for a place at the Pocklington Community Junior School or another school of your choice via the ERYC admissions team. ERYC Admission arrangements for 2025-26 can be found here.
School Admission Arrangements for 2025-26 school year
As a community school, the admission authority for Pocklington CE Infant School is East Riding of Yorkshire Council. Each year admission authorities review the admission arrangements for their schools, and then formally set – or ‘determine’ – these arrangements. Admission arrangements include the number of places made available for Reception – called the published admission number – as well as how preferences for places will be considered if there are more preferences than places available – called the oversubscription criteria. Together these details are sometimes known as the ‘admissions policy’.
If an admission authority wants to make any changes to their admission arrangements, the admission authority must consult on any proposed changes to those arrangements before determining the arrangements. Even where changes are not proposed, a consultation must take place at least every seven years.
As some changes are proposed this year, between Wednesday 11 October and Thursday 30 November, the Council is consulting on the admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools for the 2025-26 school year. All these draft arrangements are available online at:
School admission arrangements for 2025-26 (eastriding.gov.uk)
Whilst the vast majority of the admission arrangements for 2025-26 are procedurally identical to those for previous years, six schools, including Pocklington CE Infant School, have requested a change to their admission number for the start of the 2025-26 school year.
The change proposed at Pocklington CE Infant School is to increase the admission number from 60 to 90. If approved, although this change will not come into force formally until for the year group starting in September 2025, given local need it is once again likely that more than 60 pupils will be admitted in September 2024
Changes this year include some changes to comply with a recent ruling of a Schools Adjudicator into the admission arrangements of a local academy trust in the summer of 2023. As the admission arrangements of that trust were related to those of the Council there has been a need for the Council to also look into its own arrangements. This has involved varying existing admission arrangements to comply with the adjudication, but also to make amendments to future admission arrangements such as those for 2025-26 that are to be consulted on and determined this year. Whilst most of the findings of the adjudicator were improving the clarity of arrangements and improving wording, one more substantial change was to the criterion in the admission arrangements for children who attend a ‘feeder school’ when seeking to progress into a linked junior or secondary school. The adjudicator found that the previous wording and application of this criterion to only apply to children who had attended a feeder school for several years was unreasonable, and therefore instructed its amendment. From that adjudication, attendance at a named feeder school will no longer take account of for how long a child has attended a feeder school. This change is also reflected in all these policy documents.
In terms of other documents and admission arrangements, minor changes have been made this year to clarify in these arrangements what happens when a parent/carer moves home during an admissions application; that head teachers as well as governors may request to vary the number of available ‘in-year’ school places in a particular year group; and clarify what process the Council will follow where there is disagreement between parent/carers when making conflicting preferences for their child’s education.
During this period the Council are interested in the views of any residents, schools, parents/carers or other interested parties, and would ask that all views be expressed via the online survey accessible from the page link above and also at: